Carmel’s Best Breakfasts: 8 Reasons to Rise and Shine

You make time for breakfast back home to guarantee a charged-up work day, and may use vacation as an excuse to blow off your normal routine and indulge those snooze button impulses. Don’t do it!

Read on for eight reasons to put breakfast back on the agenda, Carmel’s best morning-meal destinations, and, for habitual over-sleepers and caffeine junkies, our favorite quick-stop coffee house.

1. Breakfast equals instant and sustained energy — especially important on your activity filled vacation. Fuel up early and explore the sights to your heart’s content without burning out. Especially physical activities like surfing, horseback riding, or biking along 17-mile drive call for an extra helping of protein and fiber, and lots of snacks and water throughout the day.

2. Get organized, early. Gathering around the breakfast table is a perfect opportunity to discuss the day’s fun with your travel companions, and, depending on your individual agendas, potentially the only time you’ll all be together for more than a few minutes.

3. Breakfast helps you learn, and what better opportunity to learn than in an unfamiliar city packed with new sights, sounds, and people? A sharp, alert, nourished mind is more likely to preserve your awesome vacation memories.

4. You’ll save money! Breakfast is typically the cheapest meal of the day, so fill up early and avoid expensive snacking and ginormous meals later.

5. Carmel is lovely in the morning. Locals taking their dogs on morning strolls through quiet, golden-lit streets, nearly non-existent traffic and pedestrian hazards, and an all but deserted beach set the scene for an uplifting, peaceful stroll between the Inn and your breakfast destination.

6. A light breakfast can soothe your hangover. Last night’s wine will rest so much easier once you’ve cushioned it with a gentle morning meal.

7. Just say no to “vacation weight creep”. A good breakfast makes it easier to choose healthy options the rest of the day.

8. Breakfast improves and stabilizes your mood. Enjoy a balanced meal with your travel companions to get happy, stay happy, and prevent mid afternoon crab-attacks.

These local favorites came so highly recommended by our friends that we had to try them all for ourselves, and share the tasty results with you.

Carmel’s Coziest Breakfast: Little Swiss Cafe

The Little Swiss Cafe at 6th Ave. & Dolores

The Little Swiss Cafe’s intimate, quirky atmosphere and hearty menu selection make it a local favorite, and the fresh marmalade and strawberry preserves atop every table were a nice touch, too.

Bacon Avocado Eggs Benedict -- Big Enough to Share

Feeling playful? Entertain yourselves with a game of “Wall Mural I-Spy”. We found a bare-backed fly fisherman, the cast of Disney’s Shrek, crop circles, a couple plucked from American Gothic, and the Eiffel Tower.

Carmel’s Best Gourmet Breakfast: Katy’s Place

Katy's Place -- on Mission Street, Between 5th & 6th

Famous for their 16 different varieties of eggs benedict, and voted Best Breakfast Restaurant two years running by the Carmel Pine Cone, Katy’s Place is your best bet for a gourmet morning feast.

The Ever-Evolving Katy's Place Menu

We loved the wide open, light-filled dining room, heated patio, classically quirky decor, and this morning’s special: smoked salmon on potato pancakes.

Carmel’s Most Affordable Organic Breakfast: Carmel Belle

Carmel Belle, nestled conveniently into Ocean Avenue’s Doud Craft Studios, is our favorite provider of reasonably priced, locally produced, organic fare.

Their stone-cut oatmeal will keep you going for hours, especially once you pile on the extras, like candied walnuts, currants, cinnamon apples and spouted flax meal. Still undecided? These locals can help you out:

Carmel’s Best Breakfast On-The-Go: The Carmel Coffee House and Roasting Co.

Blink and you’ll miss this gem of a Cafe. It’s discreetly placed down a little alley off of Ocean Avenue, half a block up from Dolores, and is Carmel’s best coffee spot.

The Carmel Coffee House and Roasting Co, also known as Cafe Cardinale, sells 40 varieties of specialty coffee from around the world, which are all available for at-home enjoyment, and are sold onsite and online. We prefer onsite, and recommend taking a few moments to savor your drink on the sun dappled alleyway patio. Even your pup can quench his thirst in the sunshine.

Hope this made the day’s first decision a bit easier, and if I missed your favorite cafe, show them some love in the comments!